i will conclude with one observation on israel and gaza. there was a time in a parallel universe that you could have imagined -- and i only know this and i'm not comparing the two straight -- in 1996 america faced an interesting question, a flare on the lebanese border between israel and hezbollah. i was part of that and had a happy ending. warren christopher was there, and there was any gratian, in direct trauma between israel and hezbollah. syria was the repository of the confidence and assurances, which ended a very bitter and bloody confrontation across leavening board -- lebanese border. you have today not a strictly analogous attrition, but you have today another bloody conflict between israel and hamas. this time the repository is not syria, but it is egypt, maybe turkey, and you have a secretary of state today and tomorrow to is going to plunge into this. the interesting question -- i am not want to prejudge this -- is whether or not this becomes -- is there even a conception that this would lead to an intensive bit of diplomacy tha